Introduction
In this sit-down with Chad Wesley Smith, you’ll hear how Chad started lifting with sports, then transitioned to powerlifting, trained other athletes, started Juggernaut from scratch, discussed the future of technology within strength training, and more.
The podcast episode can be found on Spotify, Apple, Garage Gym Radio, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
(17:23) Top Clip #1 – Writing the Program
Chad talked about a program he had writ, and to show that it could work for powerlifting, he used it to train for his first meet.
“About ten months after we opened, I wrote a program that since became ‘the Juggernaut Method. In June 2010, when I started training for my first powerlifting meet, I was using this program. This … model that we had been using with many athletes at the gym. I said, ‘well, I’m gonna put my money where my mouth is and show how well this could work for powerlifting.”
“I went into my first meet thinking if I don’t squat 800 here, no one will be interested in this book. I put the pressure on myself and came through on it.”
The program turned book turned e-book did very well and helped grow the company.
(27:26) Top Clip #2
As Chad was doing speaking events and Q,&As he received many training-specific questions. He knew it had much to do with the lifter and where they were at specifically. His answer would often be, ‘it depends. This led him to Juggernaut AI.
“As I got more into the ‘it depends’ answers, it came about that I could provide a solution for those ‘it depends’ situations and create something that makes a program for everyone the same way I would if I had the time to sit down and write 10,000 different programs.”
Top Clip #3
In the clip below, Chad adds his thoughts on tech entering the strength training space.
Show Notes
(0:00) Weight lifting since when?
(0:45) Powerlifting career
(6:47) Calling it quits
(8:30) Outside of business
(11:10) Coaching others
(20:10) Shifting work online
(21:20) Juggernaut evolution
(29:27) Juggernaut AI first edition
(32:58) Changes since the app was first launched
(37:23) JuggernautBJJ
(44:25) Tech entering strength training space
Additional Links
- Use code Experiment10 to save 10% off Juggernaut AI
- Follow Chad on Instagram
- Check out The Garage Gym Experiment Podcast
- We post a lot of blog posts, and it may be challenging to keep up. Subscribe to Knurled News to help stay in the loop more concisely. For example, here was a recent edition of Knurled News.
- Check out the GGE Review on Juggernaut AI (also below).